Artwork by Jennifer Ding

Kaitlyn Ding ‘28 & Brooke Hathaway ‘28

REPORTERS

Now more than ever, both children and adults are constantly faced with harsh and polarizing content on social media. From social media to musical lyrics, the constant production of extreme media has greatly increased in recent years. While some users may be able to handle more uncontrolled content, many others are being negatively affected. With the large amount of use of social media these days, content tends to have little to no barriers. Society often notices a line of hatred being crossed, but the attention around it dies down quickly with no action being made after hate speech and concerning media.

Young people replicate what they see online and use it in everyday life without even realizing it. Sophomore Grace Andrzejewski noticed, “A lot of young kids I know [that use social media] have extreme language and have impolite manners.”

Cruel trends or harsh language are shown all the time on social media, and when users take in that bad behavior, they are more likely to utilize it in their lives.

Some people may find content more insensitive because it is used or displayed in a disrespectful way towards others. People with a large amount of influence, especially in pop culture, recently have been posting harmful content or creating music with lyrics that cross the line.

For example, Kanye West has repeatedly posted antisemitic remarks on X—the most severe being “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi.” West, a highly influential musician, encourages these notions to his young audience when he posts his content. While these people are able to use freedom of speech to their advantage, there seems to be an increase in derogatory language. The words in many popular posts disrespect certain groups, reaching young minds and potentially encouraging bad habits. Harmful slurs are more commonly heard in schools, along with xenophobic ideas being spread among the youth. Whether it be profanity or disrespectful words, both have been normalized in our society. Ultimately, impressionable young minds are negatively impacted as they are encouraged to repeat the harsh words used by their favorite influencers.